Build the Viewer on macOS

Attend Carefully The package versions and bit-widths listed below have been carefully selected and tested. If you decide to install a different version of a given package (even a minor update), you are on your own (but feel free to share your results.

Getting Development Tools

OSX

These instructions assume that you are running OSX 10.12

Xcode 8

Download and install Xcode 8 from the Apple App Store

Install the developer command line tools by running the command xcode-select --install

Accept the xcode license by running the command sudo xcodebuild -license ; this diplays the license: page to the end and type agree

CMake

Install CMake (at least version 3.4) from cmake.org

You will need to arrange for the cmake executable to be in your PATH.

The executable is '/Applications/CMake.app/Contents/bin/cmake'. Add that directory to your PATH, or create a symlink to the cmake executable in some directory that's in your PATH

Mercurial

Install the current Mercurial from Selenic

If you may be contributing code back to the viewer, install the Mercurial Coding Policy hooks

Autobuild 1.1: Install the new version of autobuild as described on Autobuild

Downloading Source Code

The canonical viewer repository is https://bitbucket.org/lindenlab/viewer-release but for these instructions use https://bitbucket.org/lindenlab/viewer64

Get the viewer-build-variables

See Building the Viewer with Autobuild#Select Build Variables

Installing Proprietary Libraries

Some builds of the the Viewer depends on proprietary libraries (alternative open source libraries are also provided for developers who prefer or are not licensed to use the proprietary libraries). Lindens do not distribute these libraries, so you will need to fetch and install these even if you download the libraries packages. (This is due to licensing restrictions. Don't ask, Lindens already did, and can't get permission. So you do have to get them yourself.)

FMOD Ex

PIck somewhere to build your fmodex package:

hg clone https://bitbucket.org/lindenlab/3p-fmodex
cd 3p-fmodex
autobuild build 
autobuild package

If it works, it will produce a package archive file with a name like fmodex-4.44.31.201503051234-darwin-201503051234.tar.bz2

CD to your viewer repository root; you can either just override the configured archive with a --local install:

autobuild install --local path-to-your-fmodex-archive

That will cause autobuild to ignore the configured value and use your local package archive; if you delete your build directory, you'll need to repeat the override command.

To reconfigure your autobuild configuration file to use that archive:

autobuild installables edit fmodex url=file:///path-to-your-fmodex-archive

but be careful not to commit that change, since it will be useless to anyone who can't access the path you configured.

Configuring

Configuring your build with Autobuild

Configuring and building with autobuild works the same on all platforms. Full instructions may be found at Build_Viewer_With_Autobuild.

Example:

autobuild configure -c RelWithDebInfoOS

if you built your own fmodex as above, add -- -DFMODEX:BOOL=TRUE

Building

Command Line Build

autobuild build --no-configure

you can omit the --no-configure option: if you do, autobuild will implicitly run the configuration step before building. That's harmless, it just takes some extra time, but be sure to include any configuration options such as that for fmodex above.

Building within Xcode

Once you have run the autobuild configure step, the directory build-darwin-x86_64 will have been created in the root of your source distribution. Inside that directory you will find the SecondLife.xcodeproj project file which can be used with Xcode. When opened it should be configured correctly to build, so just Build and Run. If it prompts you to automatically create schemes, let it do so.

Running your newly built viewer

Command Line

To launch the viewer you build, from your source tree root directory, run:

 open build-darwin-x86_64/newview/configuration-type/Second\ Life.app

where configuration-type depends on your built configuration ("DebugOS", "ReleaseOS" or "RelWithDebInfoOS").

Running within Xcode

"secondlife-bin" scheme is what you look for.

When running from the XCode IDE be sure to go to Product → Scheme → Edit Scheme menu. Select the Run section and uncheck the box labeled "Allow debugging when using document Versions Browser" on the Options tab. (See this thread.)

Using Finder

Navigate to build-darwin-x86_64/newview/configuration-type.
Double click the application.

You can create and put the alias wherever you find convenient.

Running the Unit Tests

From Xcode, open the project build-darwin-x86_64/test/test.xcodeproj and select "test" for scheme and run. SecondLife.xcodeproj project also has "test" scheme.

Handling Problems

If you encounter errors or run into problems following the instructions above, please first check whether someone else already had the same issue. A solution might be known already.

You may find the solution in any of these resources:

This talk page (Report useful experiences there)
Issue list below (If new issues, please add it to talk page above instead of there)
Old talk page
Common compilation problems (Rather old)
Issue tracker

Fix it: Modifying CMake Files‎ and please, submit a patch!

Getting Help

Even when no description of your problem has been written down yet, someone might know about it, so get in touch with the community to get help.

Subscribe to OpenSource-Dev Mailing List (subscribe) and post your question there.
For faster response, join the general open source viewer discussion and development IRC channel #opensl on freenode. Hopefully a helpful person is online when you ask your question.